Francis Poulenc Flute
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Francis Poulenc wrote his Flute Sonata in 1957 for flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and they jointly premiered the piece at the 1957 Strausborg Festival. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a patron of piano music from the United States.
Poulenc had long wanted to compose a sonata strictly for the flute as he indicated in a series of letters; however it took him until 1956 to actually begin work on the sonata, which he told Rampal about over the phone.
Though the sonata made its debut in 1957 it did not reach a worldwide audience until 1958, when Poulenc played it both on the BBC and in the American Coolidge Auditorium. A great success, the sonata is still played often to this day.